What I'm Watching 2018
Hello, and happy new year! May yours be merry and bright. I usually take the first week of the year to take stock of how the “best of” the past year puts greater focus into events of the coming one.Thus, here’s my watch list for the first half of the year. They’re less predictions and more things to take note of…though, if I’m honest, should things work out, I hope you give me some credit for my foresight!
How the NBA Went Global
Your NBA team is more global than you think, and there's a reason why (hint: predates the NBA's international expansion). Here's my recent piece for the Washington Post's Made By History series: "How the NBA Went Global."
Happy Birthday, Basketball
The storyline is familiar to many of us: the first-ever basketball match was played on December 21, 1891, in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was a game invented by YMCA educator James Naismith as a means to keep his students – many of them young men – occupied during the more snow-bound months of winter. But less familiar is how the sport quickly spread around the world.
Space and Time in the Sports Continuum
Space and time. These two words aren’t frequently associated with sports, although they impact a historian’s work and influence every communications pro’s tool box. Yet, as a sports writer and historian, I’m thinking a lot about space and time in the sports continuum.
French Basketball in China & Phantom Documents
I recently wrote a paper for the #GoldenGamesNUS sports diplomacy conference on the three times the French men’s basketball team played in China (1966, 1980, and 2006). The subject may seem odd to the casual eye, but these countries boast the oldest hoops traditions outside of North America, dating to 1893 (France) and 1895 (China). As it turned out, “La France en Chine: The Power of Basketball Diplomacy” is one of the more fun, quirky papers I’ve written and the challenges involved in stitching it together are instructive on many levels.
Athlete Activism in Context
Some of my thoughts on today's athlete activism and why it's so different this time around, compared to earlier eras, as presented at the Tignes #SportsValues conference on behalf of Sport & Démocratie November 26-27, 2017.
Five Steps For Communicating Beyond Academia
How do you wade into the public engagement pond?
With a little strategy and research you can create your own plan – or give greater definition to what you’ve been doing ad-hoc.
Welcome: Our Interconnected (Sports) World
Hello there, and welcome! I’m glad you stopped by.
This space is designed as a general catch-all for my ideas and what inspires me across the international sports-, history-, and communications worlds.
Why focus on these three “hats”? Many people silo these off into individual industries. But in fact, from my professional experiences as well as what I’ve learned in the field, today’s sports, communications, and history worlds are in fact intricately intertwined.